Visual history of the Batmobile and Autobots

 I don't think that there is really much to say about these, except that they are brilliant and I hope we continue to see more. The Batmobile one came out a few weeks ago; the Autobots, yesterday. What could we get next? Bond cars? Decepticons? Lego?

Flashpoint length and tie-ins are announced

Oh dear. Whoopsy daisy. Other British idioms meaning bollocks.

DC appear to have gone tie-in crazy for this FIVE ISSUE mini series. This means that after only two tie-in minis, there will be more tie-ins issues than there are in the main story. Bum to that. They have even kept one tie-in mini a secret AND the one shots haven't been announced!
Deep breath. Read and repeat. Wait for trade. Wait for trade. Wait for trade.

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2011/01/28/flashpoint-friday-everything-will-change-in-a-flash/

Batman Chess Set

Today I have treated myself and bought something that I wanted to buy when I first saw it, waited too long and it went out of stock. What is this item that I have want since I was 14? That has taken over a decade to purchase?

A Batman Chess Set of course! I have bought it from France via eBay and there is still one left if you want your very own. There isn't long left though - so hurry!

Uncharted 3 Story Interview

Love Uncharted. Can't wait for November. Enjoy.

Fake Arkham City Co-Op Trailer

I say fake, I would imagine that the fan that made it, made it for fun, not to trick people, but fake is so much more concise than fan-made.

We have been discussing it's authenticity here on arkhamcity.co.uk

First images of new Thundercats cartoon

A poster at the Thundercats forums has taken loads of pictures from a toyfare that shows some glimpses of the new series.

There are more burry images of toys and packaging; you can follow this link to see them in the thread.

Personally I think that these look great. I enjoyed the original cartoon when I was a young and the comics when I was older. Enjoyone who read Thundercats: The Return will no doubt agree.

I think that it's great that Lion-O looks younger, Cheetara looks spot-on, don't mess with Panthro and my favourite, Tygra, looks really cool.

I can quite happily admit that I'm looking forward to this!

Update Wed 26th Jan: click here for first official still:

Green Lantern toys etc

SuperHeroHype have a look at new toys and merchandise licensee list.

Guardians of the Universe from GL movie

A concept art image of the Guardians of Oa from the upcoming Green Lantern movie has been released. Looks pretty spot on to me. Note the female Guardian.
Prior to Kyle Rayner resurrecting them in the early 2000s, all Guardians were male. This just shows how much of a cue they have been taking from Geoff Johns and co. That can only be a good thing in my book.

Click on link for a little more info.

Human Torch RIP

Marvel Comics don't really do it for me. I like Spider-man and a collection of the X-men, but the Fantastic Four have never appealed to me. The only one of the FF that ever showed any interesting traits was Johnny Storm, the Human Torch.
And now he's dead.
Well done Marvel.

Story here

Hardy will be AWESOME as Bane

Total Film have given 11 reasons that Tom Hardy as Bane will be a great thing. Personally, I think that having such a good actor as Bane is a really interesting and daring choice.

Between Nolan's Batrilogy and the Arkham games from Rocksteady we are getting some great exposure to the general public. Joe Public's opinions of Batman and his villians has been irrevocably changed since Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. No longer is a spinning Batsymbol, a powdered moustache and Adam West's pot-belly the first thing that comes to mind when Batman is mentioned.

Could we get some respect for Robin next?
Look for a post here later this week on that very topic.

Neo to jack back into The Matrix?

http://goo.gl/fb/gQRuj
Wow wow wow wow.
Two new Matrix films? Shot in 3D?
Bill and Ted 3?
Thank you cinema fairies!

We probably won't get much more news on this for a while, so just enjoy it.

Countdown, Ion and Green lantern: Pros and Cons of a shared universe in comics

I have recently reread the collected editions of the 2006 12-issue series following the adventures of Kyle Rayner, Ion: Guardian of the Universe. Reaching the end of the book I realised a few things, including why some books are never as strong as the could or should be. Namely, when they are used to set up other plots in other books.



Another stab of the knife as
Kyle is plotted against.



Taking Ion as an example (if you haven't read it, there will be spoilers):



I think that some books just need to be left to stand alone, other wise the writers can't really develop any satisfying drama. In the case of Ion, I really felt that it was hampered by editorial mandates to include outside stories. The only drama coming from the death of Kyle's mam, not from any internal or external conflicts.

The Monitor plot could have been completely contained in Countdown and didn't need to encroach on Ion, and the hints to what the then unannounced Sinestro Corps were doing didn't have a pay off because they lead to another book (Sinestro Corps Special, which kicked off the Sinestro Corps War).


Sinestro Corps Special - here Kyle's descent
happens in a couple of pages.
Coupled with the panel space
devoted to the Monitor story line in Ion,
 have we seen enough for Kyle
to break down like this?



Yellow rings shown at the end

of Ion. Why couldn't Kyle

have found one of his
 enemies wearing one?

The irony is that the Sinestro Corps War would have kicked arse without the lead up in Ion, where as Kyle's journey in both books suffered because there wasn't a strong enough connection between the two. Take away the interference of the Monitors and the Countdown tie-ins. Let Kyle's mission be to hunt down Sinestro - on the way he is attacked by old and new foes with a common leader. Make a bigger deal about the link between Alexander Nero, Effigy, Grayven, the Qwardians and of course the mystery illness that killed Kyle's mam. At the end Kyle could have found that Grayven was wearing a yellow ring (since yellow rings were on the last page anyway), this would have given the final battle more relevance and an in-book pay off to the plot against Kyle storyline before we find out who orchastrated it in Sinestro Corps.



Just as Ion lacked a punch at the end, we shouldn't have to read other books for the pay-off or conclusion of a story arc. Ion's drama came from the plotline involving his mother, which had only been set up a few issues earlier, rather than being in place from the beginning of the over all story arc.



Bruce Wayne returns just in time to get
Dick and Damian out of trouble.



The end of Grant Morrison's run on Batman & Robin showed the worst example I have ever seen of this. At the end of the big story line involving Dr. Hurt returning to destroy Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne's Batman and Robin. It looks like he is about to win, when in walks Bruce Wayne, fresh from The Return of Bruce Wayne to save them and kick the bad guy's arse. I'm sorry Mr. Morrison, but having a character who hasn't been in the storyline come back from the dead to solve the protagonists' problems isn't good writing. At the end of the arc, the protagonists should be able to (or not) solve the problem themselves. Bruce could easily have met up with them in the next story (see Batman: The Return), but how are first time readers going to react when they pick up the trade? "Where did the f*%$ did he come from?"

So having said all that, would I opt out of a shared universe for the sake of better stories? No, because happily we have stories like Identity Crisis that fit the other side of the coin. That prove to us that something really special can come out of the kind of shared universe that only comics can create. This was a story that had fingers in all the DCU pies, continued to affect stories for years afterward and it was really good. Part of the reason it was really good is because it explored the history and relationships of these characters that inhabit the shared world of the DCU and how their lives and adventures affect each other.

Deep down it is the relationships between characters that keeps us coming back each month. How the different storylines test and strengthen these ties. The next big crossover is War of the Green Lanterns and I have no doubt that it will be great. Why? Simply because Geoff Johns and the rest of the Green Lantern team have proven themselves capable of remaining true to the characters, no matter what tests befall them? No, but because editorial also has such faith in them, that they are left to write the best stories that they can.

Dredding the new Judge movie

First off, was there really a need for this movie? Stallone did great in the first one which from the looks of it had more money spent on it. SuperHeroHype have released a photo of Karl Urban's Judge Dredd riding a motorcycle with a painted cardboard box on the top. Sorry, I meant his Lawmaster. Come on though, this would have looked awful in the 70s, let alone the 80s or 90s when production design reached it's peaks. If you can't do better than the 90s version, why even bother? Couldn't they have got one of Stallone's out of storage or a museum?